A Matter of Art
by Wind's Gale
Summary: Suyin sends Huan to re-design the Northern Water Tribe palace. Eska and Huan, however, do not see eye-to-eye. Written for the Pro-Bending Circuit.


_A/N: Word count: 1,483. Prompts: Crimson, Anger, No main characters. Element: Fire._

* * *

Peace at last. For a moment, the entire world could rest easy and forget about turmoil over the years. With the Earth Kingdom now in separate states, they could govern themselves as they choose. Part of governing included creating allies, which is what Suyin was hoping for when she sent her son, Huan, to the Northern Water Tribe as a personal decorator. It was intended to be a win-win situation. The chiefs would get unique designs in their palace and Huan would be able to express his artistic abilities. After the bout with Kuvira, allies would be an important thing to have.

Eska wasn't exactly thrilled to have a "personal decorator". Desna, on the other hand, felt indifference but he knew his sister's particular nature when it came to how she wanted things to look. He was always picky about his clothes but she was picky about her décor.

Still, she gave him a try anyway.

He arrived at the palace midday. He didn't speak a word as he looked around. Good. She liked the silence. His mind was concentrated on the interior around him, studying every nook and cranny, every statue and color that decorated the throne room. Eska and Desna watched him carefully in his observations.

"This..will not do." He said to himself. Eska raised an eyebrow. Huan threw his hands up in a fit and walked out of the palace. The twins shrugged to one another and carried on their day.

Huan didn't return to the palace that night. The twins retired to their respective rooms for the night.

Eska woke up feeling grumpy, not that it was anything unusual. It just meant her day was going well. Or, she thought it was.

After doing her daily routine of bathing, grooming, and applying her make-up, she put on her robes and headed out to the throne room.

Desna was already sitting on the throne, carefully observing her. She was confused. Looking around, she saw her servants and advisors looking at her. It irritated her. Before she could even give anyone a mean look, she noticed the throne room. It was…

 _Crimson_

The walls were painted crimson. Their actual thrones were painted a sick, mucus green with the seats an annoying crimson color. The middle of the room had a rug. A metal rug. Why a metal rug in the coldest part of the world? The walls were decorated with metal pieces bent and hung like paintings. She didn't actually mind the metal. It made the room colder. She liked cold.

What she didn't like was crimson.

Everyone around her could feel the wrath building in her. Servants hurried out of the room and advisors slipped to hide behind Desna's throne.

"Where is he?" She asked in a surprisingly calm voice.

One of the advisors, an older gentleman with a balding head and long, white beard, shook behind the throne as he peaked at her. "He's…bathing."

Huan had barely slipped into the bathtub before the bathroom door busted open.

"Hey! You're interru- What the!" Before he could even move, the entire bath water encased him in a block of ice.

"I said no crimson!" Eska bent the block of ice upwards slowly. Huan struggled to free himself before he was slammed upwards into the ceiling and dropped back into the now empty bathtub.

She stalked over to the male and grabbed a handful of his hair. "Fix it NOW!"

"You're crushing my uniqueness!" He complained as she began to drag him out of the bathroom.

She almost had him out the door when she felt something cold and hard slam against her head. She stumbled forward, releasing her hold on him. Her hand absentmindedly rubbed her head as she turned around. Huan was standing naked with chunks of the marble sink and walls floating around him. "You will not destroy my art! The throne room now speaks with character. The crimson reflects the intense emotions of the-"

An angry Eska suddenly bent water from the sink and sent it rushing towards the earth bender. Huan punched a hole in the water large enough for him to run out of the bathroom. A frustrated growl came from her before she froze the water. She gracefully jumped on the now frozen water leading through the hole and slid after him.

If someone had told her that her morning was going to start out chasing a naked earth bender so she could force him to paint the throne room, she may have actually been excited.

The first room Huan ran into was a small bedroom for one of the maids. She had been sitting at the bed and gasped at the sight of a naked man running into and out of her bedroom. Eska attempted to launch ice pikes at him, but he moved too fast and they ended up in the pillow of the maid trying to protect herself from Eska's wrath.

Huan was now running down the hallway, streaking past the workers and servants, who gasped and blushed. The embarrassment didn't last long when they saw Eska running after him, launching ice spikes and blasts of water at him. Huan was out of his element in the cold tundra of the Water Tribe but luckily, parts of the palace was made of some kind of earth. He pulled large chunks from the walls, sculpted clay statues, and ceiling to create obstacles. Eska, however, was too agile and avoided them with ease.

Their fight ended up in the throne room where Eska took the many ice sculptures, bent them apart and launched them towards the male. Huan's naked body dodged as best it could, but the head of a statue smacked him in the head and sent him fall backwards. Suddenly, he was encased in ice again and lifted onto his feet.

Eska strolled over to him. Most people would be terrify from her anger but Huan felt more annoyed than anything. She rejected his artwork. She was clearly blind to true art.

"Fix this room or spend decades imprisoned in our cold dungeon." Now face-to-face with him, she could intimidate him. It didn't exactly work but he complied.

"Ugh, fine. You obviously lack complex artistic ability. Probably from living such an oppressed, conformed life-"

A block of ice smashed into the back of his head, knocking him out.

Desna, having watched the whole thing, watched his sister return to her rightful throne.

"Are you going to wake him up?" He asked in a lazy tone.

"No."

"Must we have a naked man in the palace?"

"Let him serve as a warning to everyone else. I hate crimson."

 _The Next Day_

Being chief of a tribe was easier when you had someone who could do half the work, meaning Desna was able to attend half the meetings for her if she had no interest in them. She had one meeting early in the morning. When she left, Huan was already painting over the crimson color. It was some dull gray color. She approved.

She arrived back at the palace before the morning was over. She stepped into the palace to observe the work done. Everything seemed in order. The colors on the walls were a dull gray that had dark blue swirls dancing half-way up the wall. It looked good, she admitted. The ugly mucus green on her throne was replaced by a subtle purple. And the thrones themselves were..

Crimson.

With orange.

Huan was busy still painting them. He painted the thrones an ugly crimson color with orange flames dancing along the edges.

Eska crept behind Huan before she grabbed a handful of his hair.

"Hey! Watch it! You are disrupting my flow of creativity!" He said.

She yanked him to his feet. By now, her servants had scurried from the room. "I said no crimson!"

"You have no artistic eye. This room screams crimson. It's so full of history and life. The emotions it emits are strong and powerful, like crimson. It cannot do without it!"

Desna walked up the steps of his palace. Normally he had someone carry him but he was in no mood to deal with people at the moment. Once he got to the top, he heard his sister yelling. He contemplated going inside, especially after hearing things breaking inside. Suddenly, a loud boom was heard and flames shot out of the windows.

Eska was a water bender. Huan was an earth bender. Where did the fire come from?

"Chief Desna, I urge you to get in immediately."

He turned around to see four of his servants holding his royal litter. The flames in the palace grew larger and he could hear Huan yelling.

"YOU DON'T KNOW TRUE ART!"

He sighed. "Let's hurry."


End file.
